Sen. Inhofe Doesn’t Want Obama To Roll Back Regulations If It Would Help Obama “Be Reelected”. “Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Tuesday that he hopes Obama will continue to pull back on other controversial rules…However, he said, ‘I wouldn’t want him to do that to the extent that he’d be reelected.’” [Politico, 9/7/11]

Sen. Hatch Supported Payroll Tax Cut Before Democrats Supported It – But Now It’s A “Stimulus Gimmick.” “Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, co-sponsored a temporary payroll tax holiday for companies that hired unemployed workers last year. However, he said he would have to see convincing evidence that it helped create jobs before supporting a new one. ‘We need to make sure the payroll tax cut is not just some other stimulus gimmick,’ he said in an interview.” [AP, 6/23/11]

Sen. Alexander Defended Payroll Tax Cuts Before Democrats Supported Them – But Now They Are “Short-Term Gestures.” QUESTION: And if you look at the proportions, though, of the top, top sector of earners in this country getting the bulk of the benefits, why does that help? ALEXANDER: Well, if you’re a small business person in Tennessee, what this means is that you won’t be paying tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps more, in taxes and you can use that to create a job. It also means that your employees who work there will get a one-third reduction in their payroll tax payments every two weeks. And maybe they’ll spend some more money creating more jobs. So it’s a combination of policies that all together are focused on jobs. [NPR, 12/9/10]